The Incursion of the Hun's to Anatolia or the First Arrival of the Turks in Anatolia (395)

         The Hun's again started to move after the death of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, which was in 395. This movement had two fronts. While some of the Hun's moved over the Balkans to Thrace, another bigger part turned to Anatolia over the Caucasis. The incursion to Anatolia had been realised under the administration of the chiefs Basik and Kursik and planned by the "east wing" of the Hun Empire at the surroundings of river Don.

 

       In this incursion the Hun cavalryman proceeded from the region of Erzurum up to Karasu and Firat valleys from there on to Melitene (Malatya) and Kilikkia (Çukurova) which had had excited the Roman's as well as the Sasani. After they had captured the castles of Edessa (Urfa) and Antakya, which were the most arbitrated one in the region, they came down to Syria and captured Tyros (Sur), from where he turned towards Jerusalem. These incursions happened so quickly that the frightened church invented incredible stories about the Hun's who in front of their horror filled eyes turned to north by spring and reached Kappadokia-Galatia (Kayseri-Ankara and surroundings) from where they turned back over Azerbaijan-Baku to their administrative centre in the north.

 

      This incursion was the solid historical record about the Turks in Anatolia. When in 398 various smaller incursions took place, Arkadios, the young emperor of East Rome couldn't take serious precautions.